


A Choice

by hitagashi



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Bilbo dies but it's not bad okay okay, F/M, Happy Ending, Implied Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hitagashi/pseuds/hitagashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A visit on his death bed takes Bilbo home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Choice

**Author's Note:**

> I need to do homework and other fills but nope this caught my eye instead.
> 
> For [this prompt](http://hobbit-kink.livejournal.com/5821.html?thread=12633021#t12633021) on the kink meme:  
> "So Bilbo sailed to Valinor. That does not mean he will be immortal, just that he'll spend his last days in peace. But the inevitable is still coming... and one day he wakes up to find a hobbit lass sitting at his bedside. She's very pretty and wears a green dress. 
> 
> She explains that his time has come and he has a choice, he can pass the way of all Hobbits, which is the same way as Men, or he can take another option: Because he was in a relationship with Thorin on the quest, and never took up romantically with anyone else after, he has the option of going to Mahal's Halls. 
> 
> Of course Bilbo is going to choose to be with Thorin! So the hobbit lass escorts him to the door of the Dwarf Halls, where they are met by large dwarf that the lass addresses as Aulë. 
> 
> As Bilbo enters the Hall, he turns to look back at the hobbit lass to see Aulë put an arm around her, and realises only then that it was Yavanna who escorted him. 
> 
>  
> 
>  **TL;DR** Bilbo is escorted to Aulë's Halls by a Hobbit, only to realise afterwards that it's Yavanna. 
> 
> (Because I can't help imagine Yavanna as a Hobbit.)"

He’s slipping but it’s fine. He wonders, briefly, why he thinks it’s all right. Something was said to him before, as Frodo left the room. A whisper in the back of his mind in a sweet, sweet voice. And it’s to this voice humming softly and kind fingers playing patterns on his face. He wants to speak but her mere presence stuns him voiceless. A hobbit lass, despite only he, Frodo, and Sam being the only hobbits there, sitting at his bedside and smiling. She has beads in her hair and he knows those braids, knows them well.

"Hail, Bilbo Baggins of Bag End and the Shire. Your time is here and your choice has come."

"Choice?" Ah, there’s his voice. Weak as it is, he knows he’s close to dying, so ready for it in fact, that he’s told them all to not worry should he not return. He wants to ask her name but finds himself transfixed with the green staining her hands and the tips of her ears. Her eyes are vibrant and seem more darling to him than they really should. He thinks of his mother when he looks at this hobbit lass, thinks of her and then of his father, and then of Thorin. She smiles, takes his hand, and kisses the knuckles.

"Would you pass as a hobbit might, or shall you join your fellows in Aulë’s Mountain?" And he frowns because why would he be given that choice. She shushes him, smile on her green painted lips. "Your love for Thorin II Oakenshield, son of Thráin II, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain is legendary even here in Valinor. You never strayed your eye to another after his passing and you never so much as thought to even before coming into an heir."

"I don’t..."

"I know, it is not always easy to love someone so hewn from stone as he. But, you have, and I am sure he still loves you just as much. But even he does not have the choice, only you. You saved many a folk during your time in The Company and you were a great friend to many others. While it’s a shame you and your nephew were forced to endure the whispers of evil, you bore it well. You have earned this choice."

"What... what would you do?" She smiles, and he can swear the green vine marks on her face shift. Her hand is kind and gentle as it lays against his cheek.

"I would follow my heart. We of the Green, well, our love takes Root, it Grows, and it Blooms. Like the nature we surround ourselves with. Were I to be you, I would not let my love Wither with death." Her eyes seem brighter, somehow, the green on her skin seems a bit darker. "I would do so because my love is as deeply crafted as the oldest trees. As all hobbits, my love has never faded."

"I wish..." His breathing grows difficult, eyes closing a moment before his eyes turn right back to her. "I wish to see him again." Her smile is brighter than anything and soon he is being pulled up, walked out of the room, and down to what he thinks might be stables. He didn’t notice that he’d left behind something important. All that mattered was their mounting a single pony, the equine starting off immediately.

The trip to the Mountain is long, he thinks, but he can no more feel the time than he can the weight of his age. He watches, as they move across plains and fields and all sorts of things, he watches the wrinkles in his skin fade, watches himself regain the youth he’d long lost. She is laughing when he finally finds himself truly young again, laughing and spurring him into laughter. Their arrival is heralded by horns blowing, dwarves all about and laughing when her laughter is heard.

"Hail, Bilbo Baggins of Bag End and the Shire. And welcome to my Halls." He’s tall, for a dwarf, almost like the hobbit lass is tall for a hobbit. But he feels comforted in his presence, giving a small bow and looking about in excitement. "We’ve some folk desperate to see you once more."

He’s rushed by hugs and cheers and he can barely breathe a moment. Fíli and Kíli are first, squeezing him tight. Bifur, who had died before Bilbo had visited him again, was next, spinning him up and around. Balin crushes him in a hug and Óin soon follows, both laughing cheerfully despite the tears in his eyes. His friends who had died so horribly. Ori pushes his way through, finding himself engulfed in a tight embrace and Dori and Nori joining him on either side. Not all of his Company, no, but many of them.

"Bilbo Baggins." And that voice, the voice that had made him resist the whispers for so long, has him spin about. He hugs Thorin tight, clings to him and ignores the cheers when they kiss. Sixty years since he has seen the dwarf and he is still the same gruff fool as ever. "How I have missed you, my love."

"Can’t be having that, now can we? No more missing me. Not when I’m right here." There’s a cheerful applause and he turns to thank the hobbit lass who had guided him there. He sees her smiling at him, Aulë’s arm curled about her waist and he sees, finally, who she is.

"A celebration is in order! Hail, Bilbo Baggins, Hobbit Under the Mountain!" A deafening round of cheers greet Yavanna’s words and he almost hits himself for missing it. Instead, he bows his head a bit to her and grins wide.

He is, after all, finally home after so very long.


End file.
